Pro Amicitia et Litteris

Day Two Wrap Up

A rough second day for our guys; for ease of reference here’s a round-up of what has happened so far—

A: James and Lee 3 3 2 1 1 2 Total: 12

B: Ed and Duncan 1 3 0 2 0 3 Total: 9

C: Maddy and Farhan 0 3 3 2 1 1 Total: 10

James’s and Lee’s trip to the top room in round 4 is giving me terrible deja vu good to see in that they held someone else to the fourth there.

Breaking to the octo-finals will require at least 18 team points (and decent speaker points) from the nine preliminary rounds.

Frankly, Ed and Duncan are in a tough spot. Their only path to 18 points is straight firsts — though if Euros taught me anything, it’s that you can actually do that. (They should be due some debating Karma by now anyway.) Similarly Maddy and Farhan can only drop one point at most. James and Lee are on straights, so, while they can’t relax, they are certainly on track.

Last year was joint as the best performance from three St Andrews teams at worlds, with a combined total of 50 team points between them. Matching or exceeding that is well within their grasp.

The motions today were—

Round 4: THW prohibit high ranking members of the Sri Lankan military and Tamil Tigers from participating in elections;
Round 5: THW abolish taxes on alcohol and cigarettes beyond normal sales taxes; and
Round 6: THW prosecute communities for complicity in honour killings.

The “style” of motions being set seems to me fairly clear by now (not that, that helps prediction at all), though I am surprised by the lack of IR and foreign policy motions thus far. Even the round 4 motion (it seems to me) plays out in a domestic policy context.

The majority, if not all, of the rounds tomorrow will be closed, so news will likely be slower. The break will be announced after midnight Turkish time, and news will no doubt trickle out at some point soon after.

15 Responses

Hello Greg! Unfortunately we don’t have any word as to how the rest of Scotland is getting on. Although if you use the gerrymandered boundaries that include Newcastle and Durham, we know Durham had a very good 1st day and a 2nd day they weren’t overly happy about.

R7: THW grant those diagnosed with terminal illnesses the right to access treatments which have not completed clinical trials.

We feel pretty good about it, despite being in 1st prop. We figure we’ve probably taken the 1st or the 2nd, the other possibility being L&H B. Rather unchuffed that neither of the L&H speakers took a POI from me (the guy took one from Ed) and the girl actually kept me standing for 1:30 to 2 minutes before taking the other guy. Our mechanism was simply that we’d allow patients to access drugs which had already undergone preliminary testing; other rooms seem to have run allowing patients to enroll themselves in trials but I worry that (a) that’s status quo in some places, (b) there are better logistical arguments against it (there aren’t always local trials) and (c) given some will be receiving placebos anyway, many of the positive arguments (patient choice, informed consent for risky procedures) are of diminished plausibility. I have a worry we actually took 2nd; it depends on the extent to which the judges notice much of the rebuttal to 2nd opp was contained in our speeches, given they (GRRRR) didn’t give me a chance to point it out as they were speaking.

Duncan is correct. I think we won and a team I trust in the round also felt we won. It comes down to whether the clarity came to late for prop to respond to. Either way we were most likely first or second so we are still in with a shout.

Yup, things are going pretty good. My intrinsic feel for the last round is a first, but there is a possibility that it goes to first opp instead. With Sam Block chairing, whatever position we receive will be deserved. A second still keeps us very live 🙂 We have a first opp left , which is quite nice. Our speaks should also be quite nice….. But we’re not ending on 18!

The forth round was not dega-vu! At least last year Miles and I were not pulled up into the top room of 9 points! Still, we gave Oxford C a good kicking.

Another piece of slightly less happy news – Robert has come down with the horrible stomach bug thats taking over this competition. I think it’s taken out about 1/6th of the judging pool and quite a few systems. The way to avoid it, apparently, is to get lots of sleep and avoid heavy drinking. So we’re all screwed….

However, it isn’t fatal, just unpleasant in a rather visual way. Hopefully he’ll recover for tonight.a The rest of us seems to be fine – I’ve avoided the lunch due to feeling slightly queasy, but I think thats more due to the 15 or so cakes I ate yesterday. Damn this all inclusive buffet!

From a personal point, Lee and I know we went into a room of 14 or 15 (as 1st Op), due to back tabbing (unless we got pulled up….) Forth is very unlikely, as it first. Second is probably more likely than third.

So in other words, our most likely score is straights, with a possibility of plus or minus one.`Once again, we need a first in the last round 🙂 (I’m calling no one breaking on 18)

Me and Ed feel reasonaby please, though it’s a three-way-hard to call round, I would say. Lee and James feel happy with their performance, but suspect it’s probably only a second as apparently the 1st was fairly obvious. Marhan feels “good, but questionably”.

Me and Ed feel reasonably please, though it’s a three-way-hard to call round, I would say. Lee and James feel happy with their performance, but suspect it’s probably only a second as apparently the 1st was fairly obvious. Marhan feels “good, but questionably”.